Monday, April 25, 2016

Congratulations to all
the CETA student scholarship recipients for the 2016 - 2017 academic year!

On Thurs., April 21, 2016 - a wonderful event, made possible by the
generosity of the many CETA & University of Hartford donors, was held to
honor the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA)
student award recipients for the 2016 - 2017 academic year. This
celebratory event honored many high achieving students in CETA for their
academic success and accomplishment in their disciplines.

During the event, time was taken to acknowledge the superb efforts and achievements
of the almost 90 student scholarship recipients for the 2016 - 2017 academic
year, 49 of which were in attendance. For the 2016 – 2017
academic year, approximately $249,686.00 will be awarded in CETA.Many students took a moment to address what
it meant to them and/or their families to receive such a scholarship and thank
all those who donated funds to make the awards a reality.

The College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA) would like to
again congratulate all the students nominated and honored. A special
thanks to all those who worked on the scholarship process from CETA,
Financial Aid, Institutional Advancement, Alumni Relations and more. And,
of course, a tremendous thank you to all donors whose generosity
allowed the students of CETA to celebrate and continue on their educational and
career paths.

College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA) students
are doing amazing things in and out of the classroom and studios, and on
April 29ththey will have the opportunity to show off their talents to the greater community. TheCETA Design Expowill showcase student projects and achievements in engineering and technology.Please join us and see all the happenings and accomplishments
of the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture. We look
forward to seeing you there!

Eoin King, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and acoustics
in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA), has been
selected to receive the 2016 Belle K. Ribicoff Junior Faculty Prize. The prize
recognizes excellence in teaching, scholarly or creative activity, and service.
It includes an award of $10,000 to further enhancement of an existing scholarly
project, a new investigation, and/or support of the awardee's professional
development goals and will be presented to King at Commencement in May.

In what has become an annual
tradition, Provost Sharon Vasquez delivered the news to a surprised King
in a manner similar to the Publishers Clearinghouse presentations. King and his
senior students were working in the acoustics lab on Wednesday, April 11, when
Vasquez came in to make the announcement. She was joined by Professor Bob
Celmer, program director of the Acoustical Engineering and Music program in
CETA and The Hartt School, as well as Emily Meachon ’16, the student
member of the Search Committee.

“This is a big deal,” Vasquez told
King’s students. “The donor, Belle K. Ribicoff, wanted us to honor a faculty
member who exemplifies a teaching scholar…it is someone who not only is
excellent in the classroom and supportive of students in and out of the
classroom, but also takes their scholarship and research seriously and pulls as
many students into that as possible.”

For example, King guided two
students through an environmental noise study on the High Line in New York City
last year. Their research was published in an academic journal, they presented
at an international conference, and received positive press coverage. King also
set students up with a Fulbright Scholar to conduct research that resulted in
publication and he was the faculty advisor for students who organized the
University’s first TEDx in fall 2015.

April has certainly been a good
month for King. Just a week before winning the Belle K. Ribicoff Junior Faculty
Prize, he and his wife welcomed their first child, a girl named Eavan Julia
King.

The annual Ribicoff Junior
Faculty Prize, together with an endowed chair for junior faculty, was
established through a generous gift from Belle K. Ribicoff, a long-time
supporter and life regent of the University. Each year, the prize recognizes an
outstanding junior faculty member – one who is in a tenure track position, but
not yet tenured. King is the eighth winner in the history of the prize.

Friday, April 15, 2016

OCT and the corresponding CBCT
image, contour plot for the OCT image, and histogram of the OCT image for air,
water, fatty tissue, trabecular bone, cortical bone, and enamel.

Hassan S. Salehi, PhD, visiting assistant professor of electrical and
computer engineering at the University of Hartford has published a research
article in Elsevier Journal of Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology and
Oral Radiology, April 2016. This research work was done in collaboration with
the Stony Brook University School of Dental and the University of Connecticut
(UCONN) School of Dental Medicine.

This paper, "Tissue
characterization using optical coherence tomography and cone beam computed
tomography: A comparative pilot study," reports the imaging of four
types of tissues ex vivo, i.e., human enamel, human cortical bone, human
trabecular bone, fatty tissue plus water and air using optical coherence
tomography (OCT). Furthermore, a method for qualitative and quantitative
analysis of the human specimens was developed utilizing image processing
techniques. The same types of tissues were also imaged using cone beam computed
tomography (CBCT) and grayscale values were measured. The qualitative indices
(intensity profile, contour plot and histogram) for OCT images were able to
provide information regarding surface characteristics as well as changes in
tissue properties at different interfaces. The quantitative index (pixel
intensity values) was also able to render information regarding the distribution
and density of the pixels in different samples. A similar pattern was observed
in the pixel intensity values and grayscale values in both imaging modalities.
Within the limitations of this ex vivo pilot study, it was concluded that OCT
can reliably differentiate between a range of hard and soft tissues.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

UHart Students’ Wind Tunnel Research Will Benefit the
Aerospace Industry

Mark Markiewicz ’18 and his
teammates working on the wind tunnel

Walking into the turbomachinery lab
on the lower level of the University of Hartford’s Dana Hall, you can feel the
excitement and happiness of eight mechanical engineering students there. They
have spent the last two years building a wind tunnel in the lab. Now, they are
finally able to unveil it and use it to conduct research that will be useful to
the aerospace industry.

“You have no idea how exciting this
is,” says Mark Markiewicz ’18, who joined the project as a first-year student
in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA). The wind
tunnel allows Mark and his teammates to study and measure key aspects of
aerodynamics. They expect that their findings will make jet engines’ turbines
and blades more efficient and help aerospace companies save millions of
dollars. The research may also benefit power plants which rely on turbines.

The opportunity to do research using
this type of equipment is typically reserved for graduate students at other
universities but this team is made up of undergraduates selected by CETA
mechanical engineering professor Ivana Milanovic. Milanovic made Mark,
who is a sophomore, the project lead after he impressed her with his analytical
and supervisory skills. Although she remains involved to provide oversight and
mentorship, Professor Milanovic lets Mark and his classmates make daily
decisions to ensure everything is done properly.

Gianna Sabino ’16, who was brought
on to the project in the summer of 2015, learned a lot from working on the
build and the research, so much so that it helped her get a job. She will start
working for Pratt and
Whitney in June conducting tests on wind tunnels.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Spotlighting-Our Partnerships: The Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) and University of Hartford

Elliot Ginsberg, president and CEO of the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, Inc. (CCAT), will visit the University of Hartford on Tuesday, April 12, at 12:15 p.m. in UT 320 to talk about the importance of higher education to the State of Connecticut.

While serving as Chief of Staff for Congressman John Larson, Elliot
Ginsberg played a major role in championing Connecticut’s business,
technical, educational, and economic institutions. Now, as president and CEO of CCAT, Ginsberg
continues to promote and support the growth of the region's burgeoning
manufacturing and technology corridor. Ginsberg will share his unique
insights about how institutions of higher education and the
University of Hartford faculty and students, in particular, can
contribute to the State's economy. He will talk about how partnerships
between Universities and private sector employers, state agencies, and
not-for-profits can assure that Connecticut has the necessary human
capital to compete in a hyper-competitive global landscape. He will
also discuss how these partnerships simultaneously offer University of
Hartford students significant opportunities to develop valuable career
ready skills while supporting the state’s economic initiatives across
many disciplines.

Biographical Notes: In
addition to his roles with CCAT and Congressman John Larson, Elliot
Ginsberg was also Commissioner of the Department of Human Resources,
managing the statewide human services department; Executive Director to
the statewide training and advocacy organization of the legal services
programs in Connecticut; and Senior Manager of Connecticut Legal
Services. Currently, Ginsberg serves on the Governor’s Connecticut
Employment and Training Commission, the Connecticut Competitiveness
Council, the Statewide Advanced Manufacturing Advisory
Committee, MetroHartford Alliance Board of Directors, the Capital
Workforce Partners Board of Directors, as well as a variety of other
civic organizations. Mr. Ginsberg is a graduate of Franklin &
Marshall College (BA, Economics) and the University of Connecticut
School of Law.